Chang'an is good

Chapter 601 Don’t underestimate a woman’s feelings
Prince Rong's vanguard army had arrived at the area between Fengzhou and Liangzhou, which was only 300 miles away from the capital. Li Yin led the vanguard army to select a site and set up camp, waiting for the arrival of the infantry in the rear.

Yesterday, when a scout from the army went to the front to gather information, they encountered the Bian army. A conflict involving thousands of people broke out, and both sides suffered more than a hundred casualties.

Less than a hundred miles ahead, there was the defense set up by Bian Chunliang. In addition, the people in several nearby cities, under the coercion or incitement of Bian's army, also spontaneously resisted the arrival of Prince Rong's army. They shouted that the new emperor had established the new dynasty of Daqi, and the so-called Li Rong Wang was just a remnant of the previous dynasty and should be killed as soon as possible.

No matter they were ordinary people or bandits, at this moment they were all caught up in the fanatical atmosphere of building achievements for the new dynasty, and murderous aura and hostility filled the air.

In addition to these man-made obstacles, there are also natural barriers such as mountains and rivers standing between Prince Rong's army and the capital, especially as spring is coming to an end, summer is approaching, and the flood season is about to arrive.

As for changing the attack route, it is also not feasible. The capital is surrounded by the Wei River in the north and the Han River in the south. The Shannan East Road where the Han River flows is exactly the route that Bian Chunliang took when he entered the capital. The area had already been completely controlled by Bian's army.

Prince Rong's army could only attack from the west and back. Although there were dangerous waters here, fortunately most of them were tributaries and were not as dangerous and difficult to cross as the Wei River.

Before the troops were mobilized, the advisers in Prince Rong's mansion had repeatedly estimated that this war would take at least half a year.

It was only half a year, and they had been able to plan and strategize with great patience. But their patience was disrupted at this time - "Chang Suining" returned to his ancestral home in Taiyuan, deposed the crown prince and took his place, thus claiming the name of orthodoxy, and used it to attract forces from all sides, and used the theory of divine right to deceive the people.

They firmly refused to acknowledge Chang Suining's royal identity, but some people were willing to acknowledge it.

Under such circumstances, a group of trusted generals and advisers in Prince Rong's Mansion were inevitably anxious. During a meeting on this day, someone suggested to Li Yin: the war should be shortened and the capital should be taken over as soon as possible, even at any cost, to avoid being overtaken by "Chang Suining"!
Li Yin, who was sitting cross-legged at the head of the tent, shook his head:

"No. The more this is the case, the more we must not act rashly."

"You must know that the people ahead are all poor people." Li Yin: "The reason why Bian Chunliang incited them to resist my Li army is so that I can kill them and further prove the cruelty and tyranny of the Li imperial family, arouse people's resentment, and then support the new dynasty of Da Qi——"

“Even if I were to walk through these mountains of corpses and seas of blood and crush them to get rid of Bian Chunliang…” Li Yin said this with a silent smile: “It would only make me a bad name and pave the way for the new crown prince of Taiyuan.”

By then, his hands will be covered in blood, while the other party's will be clean...

This was a tactic he often used in the past, so how could he allow himself to fall into such a predicament?

Li Yin raised his eyes and looked at his trusted subordinates: "If you lose your composure at this moment, you will fall into the trap of both parties."

"That's right..." A counselor said solemnly, "This is the most critical moment, we must not act too hastily... The most important thing at this moment is to preserve the prince's reputation for benevolence."

Li Yin smiled.

Yes.

Before this, he had already firmly grasped the power in his hands. He was the best candidate for the Li family. The general trend was already set. The so-called reputation was no longer the most important thing. He just needed to save face. However... at this time, a more "orthodox" candidate suddenly appeared. People's hearts and minds were divided and shaken. He had to pick up this decent virtue again and use it as a weapon to fight against it.

Not only does he have to pick it up, he also has to do better than before in order to keep this high ground in the hearts of the people.

There was mockery in Li Yin's eyes as he smiled faintly, everything had been within his grasp since the setup, but now he was forced to be so restrained and had to continue to wear the robe of benevolence... It seemed that the heaven really had the virtue of loving life and was determined to make him a benevolent person for a long time.

The generals and counselors all calmed down and began to discuss ways to ease the fighting. They planned to start by defeating the civilian forces, or use lobbying and bribery, or make them fight among themselves, so as to undermine the morale of the people who were causing trouble from within.

Then he formulated a long-term strategy to fight against the Bian army.

Later, they talked about the possibility that Li Suining might mobilize troops in Luoyang. In their opinion, Li Suining would never miss this legitimate opportunity to seize the capital.

However, if she wanted to mobilize her troops, she would have to face the troops that Bian Chunliang had deployed in Gyeonggi Province and Shannan East Province. The resistance in a head-on battle would be no less than if they attacked from behind. They would have to fight for at least half a year, and Li Suining would also need at least half a year.

Moreover, this may not be a bad thing. If Bian Chunliang confronts Li Suining head-on, his troops will be dispersed, which will actually reduce their resistance.

The best outcome would be to let Li Suining die in the war to capture the capital, thus avoiding future conflicts.

If you want to kill him, you can't just rely on war conspiracy.

They, the Rong Wang Mansion, have been secretly building a network over the years, and naturally, cultivating spies is indispensable. Moreover, the growth of Li Suining's military strength and scholars in the past few years has been so rapid that they certainly did not miss such a suitable opportunity to place spies.

What's more, she also gathered the old subordinates left by Duan Shiang in Luoyang, and there were still many people among them who could be used by their Rong Wang Mansion.

After several trusted advisers discussed with Li Yin, they wrote down secret letters and immediately had them sent out secretly. Without exception, every letter was a trap set for Li Suining to kill him.

Afterwards, some advisers proposed to further split and reorganize the imperial army, including the Xuan Ce army under Chai Ting, so as to better control them and avoid the possibility of counterattack if they were shaken.

Li Yin agreed to the first half of the proposal, split up the imperial army again, integrated it with the troops of Prince Rong's Mansion, and replaced important positions with trustworthy people.

But Chaiting's Xuan Ce Army...

"If it is dismantled, it will no longer be the Xuan Ce Army." Li Yin said.

The reason why Xuan Ce's army became the most elite army in Da Sheng was because of their military discipline and coordinated combat capabilities. To dismantle them was equivalent to breaking this sharp sword with one's own hands.

"They hate Bian Chunliang to the core right now, that's enough." Li Yin said, "As for the future, I will make them believe that there is no better choice than me as a wise leader in the world."

Now, half of Xuan Ce's troops are willing to follow his orders.

As for Cui Jing, the general of Xuan Ce's army, he was just a general appointed by the empress. If Cui Jing could convince them, Li Yin was confident that he could do the same.

This is the army led by A Shang, and he is the person who knows A Shang best in the world. He thinks no one knows better than him how to win the military morale of Xuan Ce Mansion to the greatest extent.

But, Ashang...

After everyone left, Li Yin held an empty cup and looked at it. Unconsciously, he gradually exerted force with his hands until the cup shattered in his hands.

Ah Shang is clearly gone, but his traces are everywhere...

Ah Shang's soldiers and his subordinates. The child Ah Shang had saved in the past was her youngest sister from the same father...

Ever since Xu Zhengye's rebellion began, this child who suddenly appeared out of nowhere has been constantly disrupting his plans. At first he was a gust of wind, then he became a thorn, and then he became a serious concern, until now, he has become his biggest opponent.

This can also be considered as revenge for Ashang, right?
Li Yin smiled silently, suppressed the emotions that had been churning in his heart for many days, picked up a clean cotton towel beside him, and slowly wiped the blood beads on his fingers.

Dead is dead, traces are just traces.

If he could kill one crown princess, he could kill the second one.

The snow-white cotton towel was stained with blood, like broken petals of red plum blossoms crushed in the snow.

In the tent used for handling official business, Li Lu held the bloodstained cotton towel in his hand and said to the doctor who was kneeling in front of him in panic: "Thank you for your consultation recently... But my father is busy with the deployment of the war, so it is better not to tell my father about this for the time being, so as not to affect my father's mood."

The doctor kowtowed: "Yes... I will keep my mouth shut." As the doctor left, Li Lu couldn't help coughing again and covered his mouth with a cotton towel, which was stained with dark red blood again.

After finally stopping his cough, Li Lu seemed to have been drained of all his strength, and his face became increasingly pale.

He half-leaned on the bamboo couch with uneven breathing, looking at the ceiling of the tent, and suddenly smiled, muttering to himself in a hoarse and broken voice: "It really is... God's will."

After saying that, he laughed again, and this time he even laughed out loud.

What do you mean by fate? How could it be fate? His broken body was clearly caused by human will...

But how fair was God to him?
He was unwilling to accept his fate. He tried his best to plan. He calculated every step, including his wife. He was always paving the way for his future...but God did not intend to give him the chance to have a "future".

And the woman he really admired and wanted to marry turned out to be his grandfather's sister...

Li Lu laughed again, his eyes misted with tears due to the violent coughing just now.

However, the most ridiculous thing is his ridiculous life.

This broken chess piece of his will will soon be turned into dust at the manipulation of human and heaven's will... How sad and ridiculous.

After taking a breath, Li Lu slowly sat up and looked at the falling curtain. An unknown surging aura was hidden in his calm eyes.

At the same time, in the tent at the back, Ma Wan was holding a letter in her hand, her fingers trembling slightly.

"Girl...is this the prince's handwriting?" Lan Ying asked in a low voice.

"Yes..." Ma Wan slowly sat back in the chair, her voice trembling a little: "It's his."

How could she not recognize the handwriting of the husband she had loved for so long?

"As expected!" Lan Ying was both sad and angry: "The girl should finally believe it now!"

"He said that he no longer had any feelings for Madam Chang and that he only cared about this girl, but he secretly sent this kind of letter to Madam Chang!"

"Don't say he deceived the Chang family girl for the sake of the Rong Palace. Doesn't he have no ambition? How can a person without ambition do such a shameless thing!" Lan Ying said, "Pooh!" "He is indeed a shameless liar!"

Ma Wan's eyes were fixed on the letter in her hand. The handwriting was pleasing to the eye, just like the indifferent feeling he gave people. He used that indifferent handwriting to ask about the other party's recent situation, and his words were humble, recalling the situation when they first met in the back mountain of Dayun Temple...

The purpose of the letter was not stated explicitly, but the words between the lines were full of goodwill.

Ma Wan didn't know the specific purpose of his letter, but as Lan Ying said, the existence of this letter was inconsistent with everything he showed, which was enough to prove that he had been deceiving her, his wife, with false appearances all along...

Ma Wan trembled as she pinched the edge of the letter. It took a lot of effort to move her eyes away from the letter. She looked up and asked, "Lan Ying, who gave you this letter?"

The letter he wrote to Chang Suining - no, the letter to Li Suining - must have been sent out in secret, so how could it have fallen into Lan Ying's hands?

Lan Ying: "When I came back just now, I met a soldier. He bumped into me and took the opportunity to stuff the letter into my hand. He whispered to me not to tell anyone... Then he walked away, and I didn't dare to ask him!"

"So someone deliberately let me see this letter..." Ma Wan murmured in a low voice: "Who could it be... and what is their purpose?"

……

Li Lu wrote this letter on the way to Yizhou on the day when the troops were mobilized. At that time, Chang Suining had not yet returned to his ancestral home.

After the letter was sent, it was accidentally intercepted by spies arranged by Li Cong.

By then Li Cong had left Yizhou, and the letter was delivered to his mother.

The person in charge asked the woman whether she wanted to hand the letter over to the prince for disposal.

The woman sneered: [What's the point of giving it to the prince? Can you get rid of Li Lu with this letter? Li Lu could interpret this as a plan for the family's benefit, to deceive Chang Suining - who knows, it might really be a plan that the father and son had discussed together.]

[Sending it for no reason, just a small fight, it ruined the prince's interest in coming to the capital, and only caused disgust. ]

The person in charge frowned. Could it be just thrown away like that?

[Whatever you throw, it won't work in front of the prince, but it may not work in other places.] The woman smiled and said, "Send it to the prince's wife to have a look."

Thinking of the wife of the prince who was born in the prime minister's mansion, the woman said: "Don't underestimate the woman's feelings. Li Lu wants to use this to drag the power of Prime Minister Ma for his own use in the future. Isn't it just the feelings of others that he relies on?"

[Just send it over. It won't take much effort anyway. ]

……

Who sent it and for what purpose?
Ma Wan soon felt that it didn't matter, what mattered was that the letter was true.

Lan Ying looked at her daughter's slightly bulging belly, which had to be covered by a large coat: "Daughter... let's go quickly!"

"it is good."

Ma Wan agreed very straightforwardly this time. She seemed unusually calm. She stood up and lit a candle to burn the letter while instructing Lan Ying in a low and quick voice, "But you can't act rashly. You need to have a foolproof plan... Later, you can leave the camp under the pretext of seeking medical treatment."

"If they ask, I will tell them that my condition is not suitable for a military doctor to treat, and I need to ask a gynecologist to come and see me—"

"There will definitely be soldiers accompanying you, but don't be afraid. Go to a few more clinics and stay outside for a few more days. Take this opportunity to remember the route, bring enough silver, and make arrangements for our departure."

"Once everything is arranged, come back and find me, and we'll go together when we find the chance."

As Ma Wan spoke, she took out all the cash from the box, and also took out all the valuable jewelry, and asked Lan Ying to pack them up and take them away.

She gave instructions one after another very quickly, and Lan Ying hurriedly followed them, not noticing that her girl's hands were shaking badly.

Ma Wan went to look in the suitcase again, and when she took something out, she accidentally dropped it on the ground.

Ma Wan hurried to pick it up, but found that the palm-sized Ruyi golden lock had broken into pieces, and something had fallen out of it.

Ma Wan picked it up and saw that it was a rolled up and folded paper.

Her heart was pounding and her fingers spread out quickly.

A big chapter, good night~